Moyer’s Hat Trick Helps Millbrook Rout James Wood

Posted: April 9, 2014
By JERRY HOLSWORTH
Special to The Winchester Star

WINCHESTER — Even though the Millbrook boys’ soccer team’s match against James Wood didn’t count in the Northwestern District standings, the Pioneers made a statement in their quest for a Northwestern District championship, crushing James Wood 8-0 on Tuesday.

Forward Shane Moyer led the Pioneers with a hat trick, but he wasn’t the only contributor as Millbrook dominated the Colonels from the opening whistle.

“I was definitely happy to get a hat trick in a rivalry game like this one,” Moyer said. “We knew they were going to be a little down this year, but it was fun to be out there.”

The key to the Pioneers’ success was their team speed and passing game, which kept Wood off balance for most of the game, and it didn’t take long for it to pay off.

“Our emphasis is the passing game,” said Millbrook coach Keith Kilmer. “We want the ball to do all of the work. There’s no need for us to be running up and down the field. Let the ball do that.”

Just two minutes into the game, Perry Roberson crossed the ball to Jonathan Richards, who volleyed it into the Colonel net for the first score of the game.

Seven minutes later it was Roberson’s turn when he took advantage of a shot by Taylor James. When James’ shot failed to score, Roberson hammered home the ricochet to put Millbrook up 2-0.

“I really didn’t think that we played as well as we could in the first half,” Roberson said. “We made some adjustments in the second half, and we started playing how we all think that we should play the game. We like to high pressure everything, and work hard for the ball. We want to play simple, successful soccer.”

The Pioneers outshot the Colonels 14-1 in the first half, forcing Wood goalkeeper Cole Morris to make five saves. It took Wood 23 minutes before Christian Marchelewski got the Colonels’ first shot on goal, a 30-yarder that sailed high.

Millbrook struck again with 17 minutes left in the first half when Moyer headed in a cross from Brian McGuire to put the Pioneers up 3-0.

Tyler Anderson finished the scoring for Millbrook in the first half when he headed in a cross from Nick Kilmer with three minutes left in the half.

As well as the Pioneers played in the first half, they were nowhere near being satisfied and came out for the second half even more dominating.

“Before the game we seemed to be fired up,” Kilmer said. “I thought in the first half we didn’t play the style of game we wanted to. We talked at halftime, and they did most of the talking. They knew what they were doing wrong and they went out there in the second half and fixed it.”

Moyer scored on the first of two breakaways by the Millbrook senior just six minutes into the second half.

“We worked the ball around in the first half, but I thought that we were a little sloppy,” Moyer said. “We knew that it wasn’t how we wanted to play. We talked about it at halftime, and we came out a different team.”

The Pioneer pressure was relentless, and just three minutes after Moyer’s goal, Roberson was tripped in the penalty area. The resulting penalty kick by Cal Lockley gave Millbrook a commanding 6-0 lead.

Wood’s defense stiffened thanks to five second-half saves by Morris, but it was only a matter of time before the Pioneers struck again.

Moyer’s second breakaway with 17 minutes left put Millbrook up 7-0.

“On my first goal, Brian [McGuire] brought the ball down the sideline and just chipped into the middle,” Moyer said. “I jumped as high as I could and tried to get a head on it. I didn’t even know whether I got it or not until I saw it in the net.”

Three minutes later, Nathan Burgreen scored off a pass from Roberson to end the game with 12 minutes still left in regulation.

“This is very disappointing,” said Colonel coach Matt Dunsmore. “They have tremendous speed and they have three strong scorers up front. They also pass the ball very well. They were just bigger, faster, and stronger than we were.”